The Solidarity Movement believes that national discussions to find solutions to the country’s pressing crises are essential, but it seems as if the National Dialogue will only result in even more useless discussions instead of action. The reason for this is that it appears that the ANC wants to hijack the intended National Dialogue to try to win back lost support, rather than find answers to the crises.
At present, the ANC is very vocal about the necessity to participate in the National Dialogue, but over the past number of decades it has not been willing hold discussions with other stakeholders in good faith and to listen to their proposals. The experience is that the ANC would rather conduct an ANC monologue than participate in national dialogues.
The ANC has dominated all previous discussions, using them merely as forums to try to sell its policies, rather than forums where they could listen to proposals on how to adjust their unworkable policies.
Added to this is the experience that agreements that had been reached were broken by the ANC shortly afterwards, only for them to continue staggering forward alone on their socialist road to nowhere while dragging the country along with them.
Therefore, the Solidarity Movement will take a wait-and-see approach to the National Dialogue. We are too busy with work to try to address the consequences of failed ANC policies, and we do not have the time to listen for weeks and months on end to their outmoded blame politics and a repetition of unimaginative ideas.
Our experience is that “community dialogues” yield more fruit than a state dialogue, and that discussions between communities produce more practical results.
Therefore, in collaboration with other cultural communities, we plan to submit a position paper on the country’s pressing issues to the National Dialogue, and initially only send an observer to the Dialogue before we decide on participation.
The ANC has not yet given any indication that it will reconsider failed policies. The best indications are that since the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), it has continued to act as if it were ruling alone, and that it would rather make the country the target of U.S. sanctions than make policy adjustments in the national interest. The country needs new and fresh ideas because the old ANC ideas have failed, and it will be of no use to simply recirculate these ideas. Millions of people have suffered long enough under the ANC’s leadership.
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